


Snowbound

by VioletWestenra



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-04 19:17:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17903978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VioletWestenra/pseuds/VioletWestenra
Summary: An unexpected blizzard traps Zelda and Lilith inside the mortuary. Zelda is suspicious. Lilith is attracted. None of them are sure of the meaning of it all.





	Snowbound

**Author's Note:**

> This has been done for a while, just wanted to put it out there before the winter ends! No smut, just your usual "weird weather happened and now we're stuck" trope, with a little twist.

              Zelda sighed, looking through the window to see nothing but white. The absolute blizzard that had fallen over Greendale that evening had the worst possible timing to it. Sunday had Hilda at “Dr.Cee’s” , not at all minding being snowed in, Satan only knew how much lost time she had to make up for, Ambrose in quite a similar predicament with Luke, and Sabrina at had decided to stay the weekend at the academy, using extra credit as an excuse, but most likely up to Satan knew what, although, whatever it was, Zelda knew if any trouble came her niece’s way, she’d at least hear about it soon. That had left her home alone, unless one would count Salem as company, which she didn’t. That was, until a knock on the door was sensed more than heard by the witch. Putting her teacup down, she answered it, muttering to herself that absolutely nothing good could come from answering the door during some kind of freak snowstorm. And right she was.

               One could say the Mother of Demons, in her human disguise, had become quite the frequent guest at the Spellmans’ residence. With Sabrina still insisting in keeping a connection to the mortal world, Mary Wardwell, the ever so helpful excommunicate, did what she could to keep the girl from trouble. Even if her methods were nowhere near up to Zelda’s standards. Zelda just couldn’t shake the feeling something was off with that woman, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was either. At least not yet. All she knew was that, when they were performing the exorcism, they had had to combine their powers, their very life forces, and then she had felt something beyond her sister’s and niece’s magic. Something Hilda and Sabrina both didn’t seem to have felt themselves. Something much darker, sinister, addictive. The meek façade Mary showed the world was nothing but that: a façade. And if Zelda spent way too much time thinking about her, it was just her waiting for the right sign, so she could prove it. Maybe this would be it.

                ‘Mary. What a surprise.’  She stepped away from the door making way for the other woman to enter her house. ‘What can I do for you in such dreadful weather?’  

Zelda’s words were the epitome of politeness, but her tone was dry, almost sarcastic as she closed the door against the wind, almost taken aback by how absolutely freezing it was, even for mid-January, and if her face was slightly flushed, it was only because of that. The last time she remembered something like that happening was in a winter spent in Russia many decades before, locked up in a cabin with friends. It had lasted for days, but then she hadn’t minded it at all, they were young and carefree, much more interested in exploring each other’s magical abilities. And bodies.  

                ‘Well, hello, Zelda, I was just heading home when I decided to take a detour, so I could hand Sabrina the book she asked me for, she mentioned some extra credit work at the academy, I guess?’

                Mary looked slightly frazzled, so the wind might have been even worse than she had thought, Zelda noticed as she watched the other woman take off the hood covering her hair.

                ‘I guess so, Sabrina isn’t here but you can leave the book. And leave. I’ll tell her you stopped by.’ She agreed with a tight-lipped smile, still clearly wary of the other woman. Mary held up a small book bound in burgundy leather, leaving it on the table near the door.

                ‘ Well, you see, I was just heading home, but as soon as I entered your property the snowstorm hit, so I thought I could just teleport from here and avoid all the trouble of getting back home in this weather.’

                ‘I see, very well then, go ahead. I’ll tell Sabrina about the book. Goodbye.’

                Zelda stared at her, waiting impatiently for the woman to teleport home. She wasn’t scared of Mary, far from it, but it still didn’t mean being alone with the excommunicated was a wise decision by any means.

                ‘Goodbye then.’

                   Lilith stood in the middle of the hall, took a deep breath and prepared to be back in the cottage in a second, away from the redhead’s suspicious glances. Everything went perfectly still for a moment, then, all of a sudden, the whole house shook, and suddenly the air smelled like someone had lit a thousand matches at the same time.

             ‘Oh, for Satan’s sake!’ Zelda knew she probably made quite the pathetic image, clinging to the doorframe between the vestibule and the main hall. The air smelled strange. ‘What in the Dark Lord’s unholy name have you done?’

                        Even though she would usually take great pleasure in seeing Zelda disheveled and irked, blushing furiously out of indignation, Lilith just couldn’t pay attention to her for long in that moment. Her magic had failed for the first time in over five centuries and that couldn’t be good. She all but ran to the parlor, looking out the window. She exhaled slowly, her mouth dry.

                ‘Zelda, I think you should come look at this.’

                         The redhead rolled her eyes but complied, she hadn’t heard Mary sound that serious since, well, since during the exorcism. She approached the window, looking out to see whatever it was she was indicating. Zelda blinked twice, trying to understand what she was looking at, then she realized: the snow wasn’t falling at all, it just seemed to be spinning around the house in some kind of strange loop. She hadn’t seen something like that before, but she was sure it was no ordinary snowstorm.

                ‘What in the absolute nine circles of hell is that?’

                        Lilith smiled at the phrasing, allowing herself to be a little distracted by how close she was to the other woman, so close she could smell her hair, and even almost feel her nervous pulse. She saw Zelda’s lips move but couldn’t hear a word she said.

                ‘Mary? Mary! Oh, for Satan’s sake, don’t just stand there! If that’s a magical blizzard we must find a way to end it! But who could’ve done it? I must tell Hilda!’

                             Lilith’s eyes followed her fidgety hands all the way to the phone. A frustrated sigh.

               ‘It’s not working, I guess I’ll just have to astral project. Make yourself useful and keep watch, will you?’

                Lilith nodded, still not quite paying attention, until Zelda started to quickly place some candles in a circle, in a practiced way that made clear she was more than used to it. That was interesting, to say the least. Astral projection was quite the reckless practice among witches, she wouldn’t have assumed Zelda, with her unholier than thou ways, would be one to consider it an option so easily. Either way it was alarming, since her own magic hadn’t worked, she couldn’t just allow the witch to do something even more dangerous than just teleporting between two well known locations. She preferred not to dwell on her reasons for feeling so protective, though, int the back of her mind she knew it had very little to do with Sabrina or a mission of any kind. She was clearly losing objectivity and she knew it.  

                Zelda was about to light the candles with a wave of her hand when fingers caught her wrist, preventing her from doing so. Both women seemed taken aback by Mary’s impulsive action, freezing for a second.

                ‘Zelda, I think… It might not be a good idea.’

                Lilith knew she had to thread carefully there, she knew Zelda already had her suspicions about her and any mistakes could lead to complicated questions.

‘I mean… If I couldn’t teleport, it might… well, it might be dangerous for you to just astral project and Satan knows Sabrina would never forgive me if I allowed her favorite aunt to be so…’

                ‘So?’ Zelda raised a skeptical eyebrow, but Lilith could feel her resolve crumbling.

                ‘Well, so reckless…’

                Yes, that would do it, Lilith thought, the emotional appeal Sabrina had over the witch, combined to the slight insult, delivered as meekly as possible would be enough to hold Zelda back, at least for some time, hopefully until the spell wore off. She couldn’t help but notice the way she huffed and rolled her eyes as if she was terribly bored, but her hands kept fidgeting anxiously.

                ‘Very well then. If we are to just stay in here, I suggest we at least go to the library, there must be something on magical weather events, some way to counter spell it from the inside, or at least some clue on what we’re dealing with.’

                Lilith nodded, following her to the next room. The library wasn’t very big, and the books covering the walls, added to the ones in piles on the coffee table, the armchair, on the carpet at both sides of the loveseat, made the room feel even smaller. It was almost charming, since every other room on the first floor of the mortuary, while intricately decorated, didn’t seem as full, or better, as lived in as this one, except, of course, for the kitchen, which was clearly Hilda’s territory. This was different. She stopped to analyze some ancient looking scrolls open on a desk under the window, wondering briefly if that room contained enough information to maybe, just maybe get her identity found out. It would make things much easier, or terribly harder, she didn’t know which. Maybe both, she thought, appreciatively letting her eyes set on Zelda’s figure, following the waves of pale red hair, noticing the contrast to the dark fabric of her dress, the lines of her body, the glimpses of pale skin her angle allowed, the graceful curve of her neck, a tense hand, her dark nails. Never let it be said that the Mother of Demons didn’t have an eye for pretty things. The witch had her back turned to her, scanning a neatly lined shelf, but seeming more and more disappointed by the minute.

                ‘Oh, this is just terrible!’ The redhead suddenly turned around, surprising her, making it terribly obvious she had been staring.  ‘At this rate, we’ll be found in the morning, frozen to death like defenseless mortals!’

                Barely avoiding choking on her own tongue at being caught, Lilith nodded.

                ‘Yes, it’s just… Terribly humiliating, we are perfectly capable witches, it wouldn’t do to die like that. However… do you think this, the blizzard around the house, might be a threat?’

                ‘A threat? Whatever do you mean by that?’

                ‘Well not much at all, it’s just, you know, if, for example, someone had, perhaps some kind of grudge against you, or maybe some high priest who seems terribly distraught over not having whatever he wants whenever he wants, or maybe even over someone, hypothetically, taking what he believes belongs to him…’

                Zelda felt fury wash over her. Her mouth was dry, her face hot, heart pounding. She took a step towards Mary.

                ‘How dare you? How do you even…?’

                Lilith smirked, playing with a rabbit shaped stopper stolen from a decanter on a nearby side table. Zelda was glorious even in her half choked out outrage. She interrupted whatever accusation was about to come her way.

                ‘I didn’t say anything, Ms. Spellman. I wouldn’t dare to question your… private matters. But, if I can offer some advice, let’s say, as someone who knows more about Faustus Blackwood’s mind than any witch could ever hope to, I’d suggest you refrain from accepting any… propositions he might try to make you. Let him suffer the loss of what he does not possess, dear. You’re far too good for the likes of Blackwood.’

                Zelda stared at her, annoyed for a second, then sighed. Mary clearly didn’t really know anything for sure, she probably just thought Faustus was trying to get Zelda to slip into his bed and warning her to run away. However, parts of her statement, and the barely contained fury behind her eyes caught the witch’s attention. She crossed her arms, the crease between her eyebrows more pronounced now.

                ‘And whatever do you mean by that?’

                Lilith smirked, getting Zelda curious enough to drop her guard even just for a second felt like a win.

                ‘Oh, nothing much, dear, I just think women should be in charge of everything. Blackwood is no leader, he thinks he is such a predator, with his ideas of male supremacy, but has no clue how low he is on the food chain.’ She picked up the decanter she had opened, looking at the reddish liquid through the crystal, offering Zelda the bottle as if she was the hostess instead of a guest. ‘Cognac?’

                They stared at each other for a tense moment. Zelda chuckled discreetly, rolling her eyes but accepting. Mary really was a terribly strange woman, walking on earth as if she owned everything, as if nothing was ever off limits. In spite of her apparent meekness, there was a part of her that clearly felt so at home as if she had been there since the world began.

                Lilith handed Zelda her glass, noticing how cold the witch’s hands were when their fingers brushed briefly against each other’s, then raised her own.

                ‘To getting out of here before we freeze two death like two incompetent mortals.’

                Zelda raised her glass in response.

                ‘You do know I do have a fireplace, right?’

                 Lilith laughed, getting closer to the witch, as she turned to the fireplace and with a discreet, practiced hand gesture, set fire to the timber in there. A flash of blue lit the room, as the terribly high flames made wood burn to ashes. Hellfire. She didn’t really think, just pulled Zelda towards her, away from the fire, and in a second as suddenly as it had flared, the fire was gone completely.

                ‘Are you alright?’ She took a step back, almost not noticing her own hands on Zelda’s shoulders, her own eyes frantically searching for injuries on the witch’s body. ‘You didn’t burn yourself, did you?’

                ‘No, I’m fine, it’s fine, I just… I could swear I just saw hellfire.’  She looked at the ashes in the fireplace, blinking in confusion. ‘You don’t think it’s… I mean, it is virtually impossible, it’s just preposterous…’

                Lilith froze for a second. That couldn’t be good, not at all, she knew hellfire just didn’t happen casually, as a fluke, some minor spellcasting mistake. No. It could only be cast on purpose or be the result of demonic magic gone awry. It wouldn’t take long for Zelda to figure that out, as soon as the shock wore off, she knew the witch was fairly well-versed in demonology, and even if she didn’t remember that specific piece of information, the probability she would easily find it in one of her books was worryingly high. She needed to do something quick.

                ‘Hellfire? Oh, dear, are you sure you’re alright? It couldn’t have been, I think maybe you should sit down for a bit, you seemed so scared…’

                Zelda sighed, taking a sip of her cognac and pressing the palm of her hand to her forehead, as Lilith had seen her do so many times before when trying to compose herself.

                ‘No, you are right, it just couldn’t have been, I am simply… tense because of the whole situation. So, let’s look at what this could be and find a way to counter the spell before we do freeze to death, shall we?’

                Once again Zelda began carefully looking at the titles displayed in front of her, Mary joining her this time. She pulled two books on weather altering spells but didn’t seem satisfied. Something was amiss. The redhead took a second to mentally go through everything that had happened in the last hour or so. The snow storm had hit, then fifteen minutes later, Mary Wardwell had shown up to her doorstep, looking like a half-frozen wolf in sheep’s clothing. They had bickered, as usual, for about five minutes or so, until she had tried to teleport home, which Satan knew why, had gone terribly awry, then she had stopped her from astral projecting by being completely inappropriate, making it all look like a scene from one of those disgusting romance novels Hilda was so fond of. She sighed. Mary Wardwell was strange and at most times, slightly annoying with her way too benevolent smiles, her way too tight dresses and her way to always seem to be lurking around her and her family. She admired her choices in lipstick and hair, but that was about it. Attraction was never a good enough excuse for her to allow herself to throw caution to the wind and indulge in morally questionable dalliances. It shouldn’t be. The whole ordeal with Faustus should have taught her that. An exclamation pulled her back to reality. Mary looked triumphant, holding a particularly worn out book.

                ‘Binding spells? Really?’ Zelda raised an eyebrow, skeptical.

                ‘Well, think about it, not being able to leave, to control our powers properly, the phone not working… Something tells me that if we were to walk out of your front door right now, we’d be walking through the snow for a long time until we were right back in your porch again.’

                 Lilith shrugged, that was her best guess so far, binding spells were tricky, they often looked like  something else, and that’s what made them so hard to identify. Demons often performed them, much like Batibat had tried, but for witches it was even more common, the only thing that made her slightly worried was who could have cast a spell strong enough to trap a powerful witch and the Mother of Demons herself. Blackwood couldn’t have done it, he wasn’t nearly powerful enough, maybe if he had gathered that group of boys he called his right hand, his inner circle, like puppets in his hands, but that was still just speculation, she couldn’t be sure.

                 Zelda sighed. Mary was probably right, she didn’t know how but someone had set a trap and well, they had definitely caught something there. She rubbed her temples with the tip of her fingers. She really needed a smoke. Mary seemed to sense this, taking the decanter and filling her glass once again. The witch just allowed her to, slightly annoyed at how the proximity didn’t annoy her at all.  

                ‘Well, if we’re not able to undo it, we’ll have to just wait until it wears off or someone gets here and undoes it from the outside. So, I guess it’s time to ‘hit the books’, as my students would so aptly put it.’

                     Zelda snorted discreetly. She blamed the Cognac. Grabbing the nearest book, one on area- affecting spells, she sat on one end of the loveseat, and started looking through the index, searching for something at least mildly helpful. The room seemed colder than she remembered.

                           Lilith followed the witch’s example, opening the book on binding spells and curses and walking towards the loveseat as if paying no attention to where she was going, sitting not on the other end, but right in the middle, closer to Zelda than she could ever justify if not under the guise of distraction. A few minutes went by like that, the room getting colder by the second. Strangely enough, she seemed hyperaware of where Zelda was and every single movement she made, no matter how small or absent minded it was. The sighs, the fidgeting, the frown on her face that deepened when she thought something didn’t make sense, the way she drank her cognac. Lilith couldn’t really focus at the task at hand, almost regretting her decision to sit so close to the witch.  She blinked quickly, looking at the lines in front of her but not reading a single word. She couldn’t concentrate. There was no way out unless she compromised her identity. And that was definitely not an option.

                ‘It’s pointless.’

                Zelda’s head shot up.

                ‘I beg your pardon?’

              ‘This’ Lilith pointed at the small pile of books in front of them. ‘Is a waste of time and energy. If someone was powerful and determined enough to trap us both in here, there’s no way we’ll just break the spell until they show themselves.’

                ‘Well then, so be it.’

                               Determination in her eyes, the witch rose from the loveseat, gathering her strength, and spoke in a commanding voice.

                ‘As the rightful head of the most ancient and noble house of Spellman I, Zelda Phiona Spellman, order you, whomever you might be, to show yourself and face the consequences of defying me and the wards that guard these walls and this ground.’

                They waited. Silence. Nothing. Zelda looked back at her, speechless in her fury. It took Lilith a lot more self-control not to smile than she had expected. The witch was something to see in those moments. Then, Lilith let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding, as Zelda began pacing incessantly.

                ‘Well, there it is. Nothing. Trapped in my own house, challenged by some nameless, faceless entity and freezing to death like some magicless halfwit, oh, the Dark Lord must be terribly ashamed of my failures as a witch, I shouldn’t have abandoned satanic confession, that must be some kind of punishment for my lack of- she paused, turning to look at the unlit fireplace, pretending to find the ashes terribly interesting while uncomfortably searching for an appropriate word- discipline and I guess you just got carried along, you are an excommunicate after all, He must think you’re in dire need to be put back in your place and-’

                Lilith’s genuine startled laughter cut through her ramblings. It was almost adorable, really, a witch as intelligent and capable as Zelda being so blind to what was right in front of her. However, all the guilt and shame bothered her, after all, a cat of nine tails had way better uses than provoking tears of repentance. She walked closer to the witch, formulating a plan in her mind. It wasn’t terribly elaborate, just distract and dispel, but given the circumstances, it was as good as anything else. She would have to be quick and precise, and if it gave her the chance to have a little fun, she saw no reason not to take it.

                ‘Oh, Zelda, my sweet, dear Zelda, don’t you see? This is no punishment, you can rest assured that Satan knows you’re doing your best, darling, that you’ve been the most diligent and dedicated witch you could be since you were born, that you haven’t slacked for a single day, and that you’d never step a single toe out of line if not for a very good reason.’

                       Zelda felt Mary’s hands finally rest on her shoulders. She turned to her, gasping slightly at how close they were to each other, her breath suddenly a little uneven.

               ‘Unless you’ve got some unheard of direct connection to the Dark Lord, you have no way of knowing that.’ She whispered, her voice shaking.

                      Lilith smiled, leaning forward and letting one of her hands slide to the wall behind them, carefully avoiding one of the many paintings and portraits.

                ‘Oh, darling, you have no idea how much I actually know. I might not be part of a church but that doesn’t mean the Dark Lord and I are not… close, if you will.’

                Zelda pressed herself against the wall to keep some distance between them, but even though she noticed Mary did leave her an escape route, she didn’t take it, looking into her eyes as if searching for something, an explanation, a confession, an answer, anything. She wrapped her arms around herself, as she usually did when she smoked. She really could use a cigarette. She felt as if she was close to some terrible discovery, the truth concealed by only fog in front of her, taunting her, daring her to get closer, to reach out and find out what it was. She closed her eyes and whispered, eyelids trembling.

                ‘What are you talking about?’

                  Zelda Spellman was not a soft woman. Soft was not a word that had ever described her, not even as a child, but as her cigarette holder slipped from her finger and fell to the floor, as her hand tangled into dark hair, as Mary’s lips crashed onto hers, she thought that she might be losing her edge. Attraction was a dangerous thing, and that was a game she felt she was bound to lose. However, she minded it a lot less than she had initially thought.

                  Lilith’s hands seemed to want to be everywhere at once, as if trying to map every single part of Zelda’s body she could reach, as if trying to commit to memory every inch of something dear she was already preparing herself to lose. In the end, that was the whole problem. The fact that she had known since the beginning that as soon as she got her hands on the Spellman matriarch, she wouldn’t want to give her up. Even in all her centuries, she hadn’t had almost anything to call her own, and now seemed as good a time as any to start, or it would be if the stakes weren’t so high, if the object of her affection wasn’t so cunning and already had her own suspicions, if she didn’t have a mission she simply couldn’t fail. She knew her devotion to the Dark Lord was far from what it once had been, she knew that every day, the idea of ruling hell next to him became less and less appealing, and a new desire, a darker one was slowly taking roots inside her mind. Betrayal.

                She pulled back, feeling Zelda’s cold fingers shaking slightly where they touched her cheek. Silence. She looked into the witch’s eyes, with a bittersweet feeling rising in her chest. She couldn’t think of a better partner to plan a coup with. Or a better High Priestess. Zelda would absolutely hate her when she found out.

                Zelda felt dizzy. Mary smelled like incense, and it made her head spin. Part of her wanted to deny any terrible terrible, absolutely no good mostly unwelcome feelings she might have had towards Mary or kissing or even the mantelpiece they were pressed against, or how terribly warm the other woman was. The rest of her just wanted to be kissed like that again. She looked down, finding the pattern on Mary’s dress sleeve suddenly very interesting, but not daring to move her hands. It was a strange, fragile silence that had settled between them, something so soft surrounded by so many sharp corners that the courage to break it disappeared almost as many times as she opened her mouth to say something. Zelda lifted her eyes once more.

            ‘This is… We…’ She drew a shaky breath. ‘This is… highly… You’re very warm.’

              Lilith smiled, kissing Zelda once more, ignoring her slight frown, silently hoping she wouldn’t get too caught up in all those answerless questions. She found the witch’s antics quite amusing, and she knew how dangerous that little voice in the back of her mind pointing out how easily she could get used to this was. As she kissed her, she could almost see it. Lazy afternoons reading together. Quietly talking to one another in foreign languages. Shared jokes. A shared bed.

                 The front door flew open just as Lilith’s hands found the zipper on Zelda’s dress, making the witch pull away from her, gasping and immediately trying to wipe away any trace of lipstick that might have been on her face. The sound of footsteps seemed to freeze them both into place, as they heard the door close once again.

           ‘Zelds? We’re home!’ Hilda called out from the main hall ‘Sabrina and Ambrose met me at Cee’s earlier, so…’

                Zelda was definitely not listening to her sister anymore, looking out the window instead, to notice the snow falling gently on the rose bushes in her yard. The spell was definitely undone and they hadn’t even noticed when it had happened.

           ‘Mary, it seems…’

           ‘I know.’

                 Zelda stared at her for a moment, her expression unreadable, hand absent mindedly realigning her necklace, as if even her subconscious was terribly keen on making sure she wouldn’t look disheveled when seen by her family. Mary was close again, maybe a bit too close, leaning against the window frame, and she could feel her objectivity start to slip away once more. Mary’s warm hands found their way around her waist and they were kissing once more, only parting when the sound of footsteps was heard again, much closer this time. They stayed strangely close for a second longer than justifiable, feeling unexplainably amused. Mary let out a laugh, and although Zelda didn’t quite smile, the way she lowered her eyes and twitched her lips made it clear she was pleased.

        ‘Auntie Zee? Auntie Zee, you won’t believe what just happened, I was just minding my own business when’ Sabrina stopped in her tracks, looking at her former teacher. ‘Oh, hi Miss Wardwell’

                     Lilith pressed her lips together, unable to shake the feeling of somehow being caught in the act, even if all of her body parts were at least six inches away from Zelda, she made sure of that.

         ‘So, as I was saying, I was minding my business and then I remembered I has asked for Miss Wardwell’s book on spell cataloguing, because Blackwood asked and yeah, I get it, he’s the headmaster and all but, I mean, I wouldn’t kill him to let us go without homework on the weekends, or something…’

                        As Sabrina rambled, the two women looked at one another, a silent question lingering.

          ‘Anyways, so I was thinking of coming back to get the and I tried to call but no one answered, so I met Ambrose, and then we went to meet aunt Hilda at Dr. Cee’s, and he totally was going to let me try the eggnog milkshake but then he said he didn’t want you to get any more reasons to want to kill him, so…”

                       Zelda turned back to her niece, a stern look in her eyes.

            ‘Sabrina, you know I do not condone underage drinking’

                       Sabrina rolled her eyes.

            ‘But Auntie Zee, it’s not drinking, I just wanted to taste it!’

                       Zelda sighed, but kept staring at her niece, feeling her exasperation rise.

            ‘Must we discuss this now? I’ve already said it. “

                      Sabrina looked slightly dismayed, but just sighed.

            ‘You’re no fun, Aunt Zee.’

                      She picked up her backpack once again and made her way back to the main hall.

            ‘Thanks for the book, Miss Wardwell!’ She shouted across the hall, knowing her aunt wouldn’t be too pleased with the noise, but still way too high on adrenaline to care. She climbed up the stairs two steps at a time, meeting both her cousin and her aunt Hilda at the top.

             ‘So? Did Auntie Zee say anything?’ Ambrose asked.

                     Sabrina smiled, looking at both their faces.

              ‘No. And that definitely means something happened, and that we’re probably off the suspects list. I started talking about drinking and she barely even reprehended me. My guess is they still don’t know what hit them.’

            ‘Yes, love, but I still don’t get it’ Hilda interrupted her. ‘Why go through all this trouble? I mean, I do agree you aunt is difficult, but why not let things follow their natural course, lamb?’

                    Sabrina sighed.

            ‘Aunt Hilda, I didn’t really mean to force anything, but if we pushed too hard, aunt Zee would be furious, but if we did nothing, they’d never stop acting weird around each other. Trust me on this, if anything happened, it’s because they figured it out themselves, they just needed an opportunity.’

             ‘Okay, cous, but what do we do now?’

             ‘Well, now’ Sabrina’s grin broadened ‘We wait and watch.’

                   The two of them went on with their usual routine, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Hilda had found a new recipe for lemon shortbread cookies she wished to try, and thought that, if Sabrina was right, it would probably be like watching one of the romance novels she was so keen on reading unfolding right in front of her eyes. Ambrose went back to his studies, however not turning the music on this time, wishing to hear if anything interesting happened.

                    Sabrina, however, went into her room, closing the door and leaving her backpack on her bed. Silently, but looking very pleased with herself, she started putting the things she had taken with her back into place. The candles, the salt, and finally, a small snow globe.  

                  Downstairs, Lilith picked up the glass she had left on the coffee table as she watched as Zelda snapped her fingers and watched as all the candles in the room started burning at the same time. She summoned her ring back to her finger, taking a cigarette from a box on a nearby cabinet and lighting it on the closest candle, finally smiling, clearly thrilled about having her powers back. The witch let the smoke escape between her lips, sighing.

             ‘Oh! Praise Lilith, I feel like a witch again!’

                     The Mother of Demons froze.

            ‘Praise… What?’

                    Zelda blinked rapidly, the crease between her eyebrows visible once again.

            ‘Oh, for Satan’s sake, I don’t know how long you’ve been an excommunicate for, but you do remember who Lilith is’ she was clearly annoyed. Lilith couldn’t help finding it endearing.

            ‘Oh. Yes. Yes.’ She replied awkwardly, trying to avoid the topic.

               The Mother of Demons tried to keep her face as neutral as possible, but couldn’t suppress a slight smile, which she hid behind her glass once more. Maybe, just maybe there was a tiny chance that, when Zelda found out the whole truth, her rage would be enough to keep her from falling to her knees in worship, but not enough to send Lilith away. Her eyes once again followed the lines of the witch’s body, not bothering with discretion this time. In the end her plan to distract the her so that she could break whatever spell had been placed on the house hadn’t been necessary, and yet she couldn’t help but feel very pleased she still got to have her fun.

            ‘So…’ Lilith started, trying to sound as unassuming as possible.

                  Zelda turned to her, and Lilith could see her hands fidgeting once more.

            ‘So what?’ The witch was clearly exasperated.

            ‘I guess I must go, or your family will get suspicious. Will I see you again?’

            ‘Yes, you will. In PTA meetings, study sessions and in church. Goodbye.’

                 Lilith smirked. Zelda was no easy target.

            ‘And Friday. For tea.’It wasn't a question.

                 Zelda raised an eyebrow.

            ‘What?’

            ‘You know where I live, Spellman. I’ll be waiting.’

                The witch rolled her eyes.

            ‘And if I don’t show up?

                Mary was once again getting way too close to her, warm fingers tracing her cheekbone, reaching her hair and softly touching one of the curls.

            ‘Then I’ll just assume you’re too scared.’

                Lilith kissed her one last time before disappearing silently.

               In the library, Zelda took another drag of her cigarette, even more sure that whatever the game they were playing was, she was bound to lose.


End file.
